As the calendar turns to May and the weather begins to warm, we turn our thoughts to vacation. It’s time to start thinking about taking a break from the daily grind and hitting the beach, the mountains, big city tourist attractions or even your own couch armed with some Netflix movies.

What’s the last thing you typically do before leaving the office to begin your vacation? Right! Record an out-of-office voicemail greeting.

A few tips for leaving a coherent and helpful greeting:

• Offer the dates you’ll be on vacation so callers know when to expect your return.
• Provide the name and phone number or extension for someone who can help while you’re out.
• Scratch the patronizing phrase “Your call is very important to me.” Would they have called you if it wasn’t important?
• Skip the ever-present – and useless – instruction, “Please leave me a detailed message.” First, callers will share the information they need to share. Second, why invite someone to leave a seven-minute message?
• Let callers know you won’t be checking messages. With people having calls forwarded or receiving voicemails via e-mail, many people just expect that even though you say you’re on vacation, you’re still checking in. So if you’re truly on vacation, say so.
• The very first thing you should do when you return is change the voicemail greeting. It’s incredibly irritating to call someone on July 10 to hear a greeting that says the person will be out on vacation from June 1 to June 15. OK, so are you back in the office or not?

Oh, one last thing, try not to gloat in your greeting because you’re on vacation and the rest of us aren’t.

And check out this video for a few more voice mail greeting tips: